In line with the district's overall curricular framework for Gifted & Talented students, the Columbus Gifted Academy incorporates the Depth and Complexity Model into our instruction. Developed by Dr. Sandra Kaplan, this curricular model seeks to increase rigor into the general curriculum by asking students to develop scholarly behaviors, consider knowledge through the perspective of career specialties, or disciplinarians, and to use a variety of critical thinking skills.

Habits of a Scholar

This is the foundation for academic success as students learn to ponder, consider different perspectives, set goals, thirst for knowledge, persevere while taking intellectual risks, and strive for excellence, among others. These are traits that students are taught to exhibit through modeling, guided practice, and ongoing reinforcement. Behaviors include:

Ponder Ideas

Intellectual Risk-taking

Preparation

Excellence

Academic Humility

Curiosity

Save Ideas

Multiple Perspectives

Perseverance

Varied Resources

Goal Setting

Thinking Like a Disciplinarian

Students examine content through the lens of a specific disciplinarian. This engages students in the use of academic vocabulary and specific content knowledge. It becomes a tool for differentiation, research, and interest-based exploration. Disciplinarians can be broad, specific, or in between.

Depth & Complexity

These are strategies and skills for approaching and analyzing new information. They can be used individually or in combination.

Language of the Discipline - Specialized vocabulary, names of skills/tasks particular to people, working within the disciplines, tools used by the disciplinarians

Details – Parts, facts, describing words, attributes

Patterns – Predictability, repetition

Rules - Order, structure hierarchy, laws

Trends – Direction, a course that seems to follow

Unanswered Questions – Ambiguities, unclear ideas, incomplete ideas

Ethics - Points of view, different opinions, judging

Big Ideas - Generalization, principle, theory

Change Over Time – How time influences things

Different Perspectives – Interpretations, compare and contrast topic with perspectives

Across Disciplines - Relationships between areas of study

Content Imperatives

These are aspects of knowledge to explore. They can be used individually or in combination with the depth and complexity skills above.

Origins – Foundation, basis

Contributions – Value, achievement, impact

Parallels – Similarities, comparable phenomena

Convergence – Factors that come together, combinations

Divergence – Variations, related ideas, “spin-offs”

Paradox – Contradictions, irony

Big Ideas and Universal Themes

Content is tied to broad themes to help students make connections. Below is the theme selected for instruction with gifted students at each grade level. These were chosen because of their wide applicability and connection to state standards. Each has multiple generalizations that break down the big idea into more concrete understandings.